County Assessment Office

The Monroe County commissioners will advertise for bids on four 1985 front- wheel drive compacts that will be assigned to the county assessment office. It was incorrectly reported last week in The Morning Call that they would advertise for four 1985 four-wheel drive compacts.

Pamela Horvath has been trained to deal with angry and defiant taxpayers. But some of the people who were calling or visiting the Lehigh County assessment office Tuesday were neither angry nor defiant. They were crying. Elderly people on fixed incomes. Young parents on single incomes. The county's first reassessment in 21 years had left them stunned by tax increases that would cost them hundreds of additional dollars a year. The crying "breaks your heart," said Horvath, who was treating those calls with a soft touch.

The Lehigh County Board of Assessment Appeals yesterday approved 48 requests for tax exemptions under Act 319, which designates preferential tax assessment for farmland, forest or open space. Most of the appeals were conversions of properties already receiving tax breaks under the more restrictive Act 515, according to Robert Hanisits, director of the county assessment office. Under Act 319 provisions, a property owner could separate a portion of his land to give to an child or sell part of his holdings if he falls into financial distress, he said by way of example.

More than half of Carbon County has not returned a form that could allow residents to get a tax break from future gambling revenue. The county mailed 29,769 applications for Homestead and Farmstead Exclusion in October. As of Monday, the county Tax Assessment Office had received 14,691 completed applications. People who did not return their application by Dec. 8 will receive a second mailing. Carbon County Chief Assessor Steve Yurchak said the second application will be mailed later this month.

Lehigh County's director of real estate, Robert A. Hanisits, died of an apparent heart attack while resting inside his Lowhill Township home yesterday afternoon, a relative said. Kathryn M. Hanisits, his wife of 12 years, summoned emergency help and tried to revive the 40-year-old with a family history of heart problems, said Hal Albright, Hanisits' brother-in-law. Hanisits was pronounced dead at Lehigh Valley Hospital Center. During his 20 years in the county assessment office, Hanisits rose to chief assessor, helped write state laws regulating assessment practices and won numerous state professional association awards.

A Northampton County Council committee yesterday approved personnel changes in two county agencies, one of which is expected to save $26,227 in its first year. Five jobs in the county assessment office will be abolished and three full-time and two temporary part-time jobs will be created. The changes will basically eliminate clerical positions that will become unnecessary with automation. Two assessor positions will be created, along with a data entry operator job and the two part-time clerical positions.

An Allentown electrical contractor yesterday asked the Lehigh County tax appeals board to reduce the assessment on the company's headquarters on W. Emmaus Avenue. Representatives of Jack A. Lehr Electric have asked the Board of Assessment Appeals to lower the assessed value of the company's newly constructed building and property at 2141 W. Emmaus Ave. from $86,270 to about $20,000, according to Robert A. Hanisits, director of the county assessment office. The appeal asks that the building, constructed for $315,000, be assessed at $16,000 instead of $74,000.

Theodore R. Berger of Allentown, a retired public relations/advertising executive, has been named to a vacancy on the Lehigh County Assessment Appeals Board. Berger, who fills the vacancy created by the recent death of Vincent M. Yaros, will serve until March 1988, when the entire three-member board is eligible for reappointment. Berger previously served on the board 1972 through 1976. In other business: - The Community Fire Company of New Tripoli has applied for tax-exempt status on two recently acquired parcels adjacent to the fire station that will be used for a parking lot. Buildings on one tract have been razed, and volunteers are in the process of tearing down a home on the second lot. The tracts have a total assessed value of $6,100.

Robert Hanisits, Lehigh County's director of real estate and chief assessor, has been elected president of the Assessors Association of Pennsylvania. In addition, his office has become a role model in the state for computerized mapping of real estate projects. Hanisits, 37, will be installed Saturday as AAP president, marking the first time the office has been held by a Lehigh County assessor. The ceremonies at the Sheraton Inn in Gettysburg will cap the four-day, 40th annual conference of AAP, a spinoff group of the International Association of Assessing Officers.

The company doing Carbon County's reassessment project expects to finish visiting all residential properties this week, and will start work in Jim Thorpe Thursday. "The project is going well so far," said Bob Vandermark from Cole-Layer-Trumble, the company doing the court-ordered reassessment. The task involving visiting 50,000-plus properties in the county is expected to take a chunk of the year. However, another part of project -- photographing every improved property in the county -- will move quicker, Vandermark said.

One of downtown Allentown's most prominent vacant buildings was purchased Wednesday by a partnership headed by an Allentown developer whose specialty has been residential construction. The former bank building at 645 Hamilton St. was purchased by Oasis Development LLC, headed by Steve Blakesley, who owns three residential properties in Allentown. Peter Koenig, a Markward Group broker who represented Blakesley, said Oasis needs time to resolve about $900,000 in current and delinquent county, city and school district property taxes due on the building before announcing development plans.

Northampton County is seeking more land for its prison expansion in Easton's Gallows Hill section. To get a half-acre owned by St. Anthony's Youth Center and valued at $52,000 by county assessors, the county plans to purchase and demolish all of the Rosewood Court condominiums The county plans to then trade a piece of the Rosewood Court land, at Fifth and Washington streets, to St. Anthony's in exchange for its property, which is adjacent to...

With developments sprouting homes like dandelions in some townships, Northampton County officials want to speed the input of new addresses into the county's 911 system. If possible, they'd like to know future residents' addresses at the time subdivisions are approved. That would overcome a backlog of unentered data on new construction -- including the street addresses of new homes -- that has plagued the county real estate assessment office since it installed new computers in 1999.

Computer delays in Northampton County's real estate assessment office are causing headaches for school districts' budget and tax collection efforts. The county hired Cole Layer Trumble of Dayton, Ohio, in 1999 to install by February a real estate assessment computer system. But the system is still not at 100 percent. The delay has prevented the county from sending monthly property assessment updates to county school districts, which use the records for interim billings and to project property tax revenue for their annual budgets, which must be completed by the end of June.

The company doing Carbon County's reassessment project expects to finish visiting all residential properties this week, and will start work in Jim Thorpe Thursday. "The project is going well so far," said Bob Vandermark from Cole-Layer-Trumble, the company doing the court-ordered reassessment. The task involving visiting 50,000-plus properties in the county is expected to take a chunk of the year. However, another part of project -- photographing every improved property in the county -- will move quicker, Vandermark said.

Lehigh County mailed tax forms to 78,000 homes on Friday, enclosing plain-language instructions for completing them and describing a pending state tax reform law to which the forms apply. Officials also ran a newspaper ad Saturday informing residents of the mailing. Nevertheless, Assessment Director Michael L. Martucci said people with questions about the form have been calling his office incessantly since early Monday morning. Officials ranging from Allentown Controller Louis J. Hershman to North Whitehall Township Supervisor Ronald E. Stahley also received inquiries about the form this week, even though they have no involvement in the process.

Carbon County's chief real estate assessor has quit his post after more than 15 years of service with the county. The resignation of David Ratajczak, 37, of Weatherly was approved yesterday by the Carbon County commissioners. Ratajczak declined to say why he was quitting, except that his decision is based on another employment opportunity. Ratajczak served six years as chief assessor and nine as an assessor for the county. His annual salary was $28,064. The job involves valuing realty properties, residential and commercial, for real estate tax purposes.

Sarah Meckel owes a $250 occupation tax to the Lehighton Area School District, according to a bill she got a few days ago. Sarah is 4 years old. And Dale Nansteel owes taxes for the last two years, according to a bill his wife received. She got the bill on Tuesday -- the third anniversary of her husband's death. After he died, she took over his job -- tax collector in Weissport. The school district recently sent out thousands of occupation and per capita tax bills to district residents whose names appear on state tax lists, census lists or local tax lists.

A Franklin Township man who overpaid taxes to the Lehighton Area School District last year has filed a civil complaint against the district to get his money back. Frank Palumbo, 29, of 175 Pine Cove Court, says the district has promised him a refund of $144.50 since November of last year. "I still don't have my money; all I have is a lot of aggravation," Palumbo said. "They admit I overpaid, but they won't give me my money back. This is ridiculous." District officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Four Schuylkill County hospitals will challenge a recent county ruling revoking their tax-exempt status. However, administrators at one hospital -- Ashland Regional Medical Center -- will meet with county officials to try to negotiate the ruling before the appeal hearings are held in September. Last month, the county decided to add the hospitals -- Miners Memorial Medical Center, Coaldale; Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center, Pottsville; Pottsville Hospital and Warne Clinic; and Ashland -- to the county property tax rolls starting in 1994.